🇪🇸 Benzema misses penalty and goes off injured as Elche hold Real Madrid | OneFootball

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Dan Burke·23 January 2022

🇪🇸 Benzema misses penalty and goes off injured as Elche hold Real Madrid

Article image:🇪🇸 Benzema misses penalty and goes off injured as Elche hold Real Madrid

Real Madrid needed a late salvo to come back from 2-0 down to draw with Elche on Sunday.

Karim Benzema missed a penalty at 0-0 before limping off injured in the second half.


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Scorers: Modrić (P) 82′, Militão 90+2′; Boyé 42′, Milla 76′

Real Madrid dominated the early stages and were awarded a penalty in the 32nd minute, when Vinícius Jr was brought down in the box by a clumsy Helibelton Palacios challenge.

Benzema stepped up but his spot-kick was overhit and it skimmed the crossbar on its way over.

Madrid were then made to rue that miss when Lucas Boyé gave Elche a shock lead just before half-time with a brilliant diving header past Thibaut Courtois.

Into the second half and the hosts thought they’d got another penalty when Diego González was accused of fouling Eden Hazard.

But after initially awarding a penalty, the referee reviewed the incident on the VAR monitor and overturned his decision.

And Benzema’s day then went from bad to worse when he was forced off injured, with Luka Jović coming on to replace him.

Los Blancos went in search of an equaliser, with Toni Kroos and Vinícius both missing decent opportunities to score.

But it was Elche who struck next, with Boyé expertly setting up Pere Milla to make it 2-0.

Casemiro then headed a Luka Modrić corner against the crossbar, before Madrid appealed for another penalty for handball against Milla.

The referee checked the monitor again before pointing to the spot, and this time Modrić made no mistake from 12-yards to make it 2-1.

And then in stoppage time, Eder Miltão rescued a point for the league leaders with a dramatic late headed equaliser.

That result leaves Carlo Ancelotti’s side four points ahead of second-placed Sevilla in the race for the LaLiga title.